


The Curious Case of the Zombie Dog in the Nighttime

by ravenshour



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Denial of Feelings, F/M, FBI Shenanigans, Het, Realization, Zombie Dogs, i lov them, sort of, the only hetero relationship that matters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-20 20:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11342559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenshour/pseuds/ravenshour
Summary: When a case of 'rabid zombie dogs' pops up in a small town in Washington, Mulder drags a skeptical Scully to investigate.orThe one where Scully realizes she's in love with a certain eccentric FBI agent, ensuing some difficult and unwanted choices.Title inspired by the book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime".





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Raven here!! Enjoy this first chapter, it may be short, but I just wanted to introduce the story that we'll be focusing on the rest of the fic! I'm not sure how many chapters there will be, but I expect there to be many more! :)

The phone rang loudly, awaking Dana from her sleep. She looked at the time. 4:30. There was only one person who would be calling her this early. Groaning, she answered the phone, silently praying that it wasn’t another crazy case she would have to solve with her “Spooky Mulder”. 

“Scully”, she greeted as she always did. 

“Scully, great news! A new case has opened up for us in a small town located nearby Seattle! Two victims were found with strange bite marks containing some sort of unknown bacteria, which are what caused their deaths. Townsfolk have stated they believe rabid killer zombie dogs are the reason for their demise. Zombie dogs, Scully! This is a gold mine!” he practically yelled into the phone. 

Dana was still quite new to this whole “weird, not-of-this-world case thing” and she still was taken aback whenever Mulder would explain the insane cases they would be undergoing. They had only been working in the X-Files program for a year or so, which she considered a short time. And in that time she learned that Fox Mulder was one of the most incessant, unwavering men she had ever met. His beliefs he revered to the highest, and no matter what Dana would try and say to him to bring him back to Earth, he always stayed true to what he thought was correct. But, she admired that quality about him. She had met many people in her life who changed their beliefs in order to impress others, but Mulder never did. No matter how many of his fellow agents thought his theories were complete insanity, Mulder stood to his beliefs. 

“Mulder, zombie dogs? This sounds like the craziest case we’ve had yet. Are they sure that it’s an unknown bacteria?”

“Positive. Nothing that’s ever been seen before.” 

“Ugh, Mulder, are you wanting to leave now?” she asked, secretly hoping to get at least another hour of shut eye. 

“Of course! I wouldn’t have called you if it wasn’t an immediate situation. Can you be ready by 5:00?” 

She looked at her clock. 4:34. Goddammit. He was probably ready, knowing him. Hell, he was probably ready an hour ago, Dana considered. 

“Anything for you”, she sarcastically remarked. “See you at 5:00.”  
She slammed the phone down on the receiver, then proceeded to lay in the bed for another five minutes, procrastinating packing and getting ready. Finally realizing how little time she had left, Dana quickly washed her face and got dressed, packing a bag in the process. In the end, she had a whopping two minutes to meet him.

“He’ll just have to wait”, she mumbled to herself while driving to the office. When she eventually made it, Mulder was leaning on a beam not far from where she parked in the garage. She expected nothing less. 

“Scully! You’re late! I said 5:00!” he yelled. 

“I know, but I needed more than 20 minutes to get ready and have a bag packed. I wasn’t ready like you were, you know.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. No sweat. But time's a ticking, Scully, I’ve already got plane tickets and everything. I can drive us there.” 

Mulder was never this prepared. Dana thought it was weird, maybe he was just excited about this certain case. He did seem overwhelmed with joy on the phone earlier. She was always enamored with the things he found enjoyable. Bigfoot tapes, Space Odyssey, and the same five movies were always on his TV when she walked in there. She once even walked into his apartment to see a sleazy porn video playing on the screen, but somehow Mulder didn’t seem to care to turn it off. She left quite quickly that day. He definitely was an oddity compared to Dana. She was by the books, he was out of this world. She was a skeptic, him a believer. They were like two sides of the same coin. Sounds a little cliche, but hey, it fits. 

The drive to the airport was riddled with Mulder talking about the case and other events of ‘rabid zombie dogs’, but Dana tuned him out quickly, opting to take a small nap. She had gotten approximately four and a half hours of sleep the night before, and she was taking every possible chance to gain back what she had lost. She began to doze off to a deeper sleep when she was shaken by someone. 

“Wha-, oh. I’m up, I’m up!” 

“How much sleep did you get last night, Scully? You were pretty knocked out.”

She said nothing, getting out of the car and getting her bags from the back, still in a groggy state. Mulder asked nothing more, and she honestly didn’t feel like explaining why she was up so late. 

“Uhh, Mulder, how long do you think we’re gonna be in Seattle?” Dana asked. 

“I’m not sure, why should I know? And since when have you cared how quickly we get back from a case?”

“No reason, just curiosity.” 

“Alright then.” 

Curiosity was a load of bullshit. Dana was seeing someone. Not for long, no, but she was planning on meeting him up for a dinner to meet his parents in a week, and was really hoping not to miss it. This seemed, at least to her, to be getting quite serious quite fast, but that wasn’t anything she was complaining about. She had met him a few months ago, but still had not told Mulder. Why? Why was she so scared to tell him? Did she think he would be disappointed or jealous? Not even she knew why. She would have to tell him eventually, but that was something for later. Now, all she wanted to do was get on that plane and take a long nap. And that’s exactly what she did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again! We're kinda getting to more of the heart of the story, hope you're enjoying!

“Scully. Scully! SCULLY!” 

Dana jolted awake, looking up and seeing Mulder’s face right up in her space. She blushed, mostly because everyone was looking at her after seeing this entire scene. She sat up, pushing Mulder off of her, and grabbed her bags, walking out of the plane. 

“You really were tired weren’t you? All you’ve been doing since we’ve left is sleep. Are you sure you’re alright? I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen you this tired.” 

“Well”, Dana replied, “You woke me up at the early hours of the morning, proceeded to give me minimal time to get prepared for an extremely last minute case, and I didn’t sleep well last night. So, sorry if I’m a little lethargic today.” 

Mulder just nodded as they walked out to where the rental car was parked. This seemed like forever, an uncomfortable silence forming between the two. Dana felt bad for being so cranky to him, but at the same time she was so annoyed that he didn’t care whether she would have been busy or not. Why did he always expect her to follow his every move to every corner of the globe? She asked herself this, but realized that she would. 

“You wanna drive? I don’t care if you really don’t want to, you seem a little out of it anyway”, Mulder said, shaking her out of her daydreams. 

“Uh, yeah, you can drive. I don’t even know where we’re going anyway. You didn’t even say the town.” 

“Oh, right! We’re headed to North Bend, which is about 30 miles away from Seattle. It’s located at the foothills of the Cascade Range, and has an amazing cafe we gotta go to before we leave. It’s a pretty small town, so killings like this aren’t usual, or so the police said. The two victims are Sandy Wilderson and Carrie Daniels, two prominent figures among the town. Both ran a well known veterinary clinic in town. They were very talented, and it was said that even people from Seattle would come all the way in just to get their pets checked in. The waiting list was a mile long, and people are devastated.” 

“So is that why the townsfolk think she was killed by zombie dogs?” Dana questioned. 

“Yes, it is rumored that Carrie had just put down a dog, as well as Sandy, so people are saying that these dogs came back to life to murder them.” 

“Are you serious?” 

“No joke, Scully,” Mulder remarked, chuckling. “And to be honest, I believe them. Bite marks with a mysterious unknown bacteria that killed them? Plus they had just put down two dogs. Coincidence?” 

“I doubt it. Zombie dogs? The dogs probably just bit them before they put the dogs down, and then they were affected afterwards. Simple as that.”

“Well, Scully, we’ll see.” 

Mulder started the car, taking them out of Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Traffic was quite backed up while they were trying to get out. Dana became quite irritated with how slow this whole situation was getting; she just wanted to get to the town already and take a nice rest in a hopefully comfortable bed at the motel in North Bend. She didn’t even know where they were staying there. Now when she thought about it, she knew barely anything about what was happening. All she knew was the case and where they would be going. When did Skinner give Mulder this case? And why did Mulder want to leave so early? Dana understood he was excited about this one, but that was no reason to wake her up at the crack of dawn. It was too late though. She was already in a car going to an unknown town with no expectations to help her. Then again, she was used to this by now. You never know what you’re gonna find in this line of work. 

The whole ride there, Dana stared out the window, zoning out every five minutes. The ride was uneventful as they drove through the small towns and forests of Washington. She enjoyed it though, it was quiet and pleasant. She secretly had a love of small town, simple living, hell, she even envied it. But she never told Mulder that. 

“Hey, Earth to sleepy here, we made it,” Mulder said as he shook Dana’s shoulder, startling her from her daydreaming. 

“Step Back Inn? Wow, Mulder, you really know how to pick good motels,” Dana said as she began to laugh because of the stupidly named inn. 

“Yeah, yeah whatever. You never know, it could be the best one you’ve stayed in yet.You’ll thank me later.” 

Dana rolled her eyes, getting out of the car to get her bags. She was just ready to get to that bed, no matter how uncomfortable it was. They didn’t have to start investigating until tomorrow, so she was going to take every chance she got to catch up on lost sleep. 

They checked in together, and were lucky enough to get rooms next to each other. It always made it easier that way, so they wouldn’t have to run across the motel to give information. Rooms 101 and 102. 

“Well, I’m gonna go and take a rest, Mulder. If you want, when I’m more up for it, we can go get a bite to eat later. Sound good?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. See you later.” 

Dana pushed the key in the lock and twisted, opening the door. The room was quite bland. The walls were beige, the bedspread was light blue, and all the furniture was the same warm tan wood. Nothing too special, but it wasn’t dirty, thankfully. Dropping her bags on the floor, Dana then proceeded to flop on the bed, and it creaked. Before she drifted into sleep, she remembered she had to call him. She dialed his number, and it only rang twice when he answered. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, honey. It’s Dana,” she greeted. 

“Dana! I called you earlier but you never answered. What have you been up to?”

“I’m not home, I’ve been on a plane headed to Washington.” 

“What? You never told me this, Dana!” 

“Well, it’s a last minute work thing, I’m not sure how long I’m gonna be gone,” she stated, feeling bad that he sat waiting for her to call back. 

“Dammit. We were gonna get together tonight, remember? I guess that’s not happening. I was looking forward to it. I had a lot of things planned that I wanted us to do…” 

“I know, honey, this is out of my control.” 

“Did that Fox guy drag you into doing this? It seems like he’s always dragging you into stupid shit.” He was beginning to get somewhat loud and angry, so Dana tried to calm him down. 

“It’s okay, it should only be a few days, this case looks like it’s gonna be a quick one.”

“Well, alright. Please call me before you go to bed so I can hear your beautiful voice to soothe me into rest, okay?” He chuckled loudly after saying that. 

“I will. Love you.” 

“I love you too, Dana. Talk to you later.” 

She hung up the phone, immediately putting her head on the pillow and looking up at the ceiling. Dana considered his tone on the phone earlier. He seemed quite angry. This was something out of her control though, why was he so mad? The more she thought about it, the more irritated she got, so she just decided to take a nap and forget about it. Yeah, that was a good idea. She rolled over on her side and drifted off to sleep, clearing her mind of everything. 

She woke up hours later, actually feeling quite rested. Her stomach growled, and for good reason. She hadn’t eaten since the airline peanuts. But, the bed felt nice. Was it worth it to get up? After contemplating for a few minutes, Dana decided to knock on Mulder’s door and ask if he wanted to get some food with her. 

Walking over to Mulder’s room, Dana then knocked on the door and waited for him to open the door. She heard a groan and feet walking on the carpeted floor. The door opened and there Mulder was, clad in just his boxers. 

“Well you got comfortable. I was wondering if you wanted to get something to eat?” Dana couldn’t stop blushing. Why? She had a boyfriend, why was she getting flushed? She was probably just shocked, yeah, she was surprised! That had to be it!

“Uh, sure. Can we just order in though?” 

“Alright, what do you want?” 

“Pizza.” 

“Pizza?” 

“Yeah, you heard me. Pizza. I want some greasy, cheesy pizza. Sound good to you?” Mulder asked. 

“Um, okay, yeah.” 

They ordered the pizza and sat in Mulder’s room on the floor, talking most of the night. Dana almost told him that she was seeing someone, but got scared and didn’t wanna open a can of worms while she was having such an enjoyable time. She still had no clue why this scared her so much, telling him. Was it an internal fear? She didn’t even know. 

“Okay, Mulder. I’m gonna go back to my room. I had a nice time tonight.” 

“Yeah, me too,” he replied. 

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” 

They stared at each other for maybe even a little too long, then Dana left. She got back to her room and changed for bed. Once finished, she got cozy and laid down on the hard mattress, not even thinking to call him and say goodnight, falling asleep instantly.


End file.
